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Anniversary 



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1922 




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Fiftieth Anniversary 



OF THE 



City of Somerville 




CELEBRATED JULY 2, 3 and 4 
1922 






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SOMERVILLE 



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Set off from Charlestowii as the town of Somerville on 
March 3, 1842, by act of the legislature signed by Governor 
John Davis. 

Organized as a town on March 14, 1842. 

Population, 1842, 1,013. 
Valuation, 1842, $988,513. 

Incorporated as a city on April 14, 1871, by Act of the 
Legislature signed by Governor William Claflin. 

First Somerville City Government inaugurated Janu- 
ary 1, 1872. 

Population, 1872, 16,000 (estimated) 
• Valuation, 1872, $22,755,325. 

Population, 1922, 95,000 (estimated) 
Valuation, 1922, $88,138,139. 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

ARRANGING THE CELEBRATION 

^ <«> 

In his inaugural address delivered on January 2, 1922, 
Mayor John M. Webster said : — 

"Fifty years ago this week the first City Government 
was inaugurated. Since that time our city has increased in 
population from 16,000 to over 90,000, and in valuation 
from $22,000,000 to over $87,000,000. 

"While this is an achievement of which any city might 
well feel proud, it is not so much in our multitudes or mil- 
lions that we glory, but in the knowledge that within the 
borders of our city He many of the most sacred and historic 
spots in the entire nation. May we never become so imbued 
with the thoughts of material things that we shall forget 
to pause at these milestones and fittingly acknowledge 
our gratitude for the wisdom, patriotism, valor and high 
ideals given to us by those who have gone before. 

"I therefore recommend that a reasonable appropria- 
tion be granted to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our 
city on a day and in such manner as shall seem most advisa- 
ble to this City Government." 

At the meeting of the Somerville Board of Aldermen 
on February 9, 1922, an order offered by Alderman Arthur 
F. Mason was passed that July 4, 1922, be set aside as the 
day on which the fiftieth anniversary of the city should be 
celebrated. 

On March 3, 1922, at a meeting of the Board of Alder- 
men in conference with the Mayor it was voted that the 
president appoint a committee of seven aldermen, one from 
each ward, to take charge of the fiftieth anniversary parade. 
This committee was appointed and organized as follows: 
Enoch B. Robertson, president of the Board of Aldermen, 
chairman; Waldo D. Phelps, vice-president of the Board; 
William F. Burns, Joseph A. Haley, Thomas D. Mitchell, 
J. Freeman Saville and Emerson J. Coldwell. Richard A. 

Page five 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



Keyes, clerk of committees, was appointed clerk of the 
parade committee. 

In answer to a general invitation issued by Mayor Web- 
ster a public meeting of citizens was held in the City Hall 
on the evening of April ,1, 1922. Many suggestions were 
offered and it was voted th:it three days, July 2, 3 and 4, 
1922, be given to the celebration and that Mayor Webster, 
who presided at the meeting, with former Mayors Zebedee 
E. Cliff and Charles W. Eldridge, be appointed a committee 
to appoint committees to have charge of the celebration. 
This committee named all the living ex-mayors of Somer- 
ville as an advisory committee to the mayor, and the mayor, 
ex-mayors and Board of Aldermen were made the general 
committee in charge of the celebration. The mayor's com- 
mittee was composed of the following: Mayor John M. Web- 
ster, Hon. George A. Bruce, Hon. Albion A. Perry, Hon. 
George 0. Proctor, Hon. Leonard B. Chandler, Hon. John M. 
Woods, Hon. Charles A. Burns, Hon. Zebedee E. Cliff and 
Hon. Charles W. Eldridge. Sumner M. Teele, secretary to 
the mayor, was made secretary of this committee. Later 
Ex-Mayor Perry was selected as orator for the patriotic 
and historical meeting on July 3; Ex-Mayor Bruce was 
placed in charge of that meeting ; Ex-Mayor Chff was placed 
in charge of the band concerts, and Ex-Mayor Eldridge of 
the fireworks. Ex-Mayor Burns was asked to arrange for 
a firemen's muster, but this feature owing to a conflict of 
dates was later abandoned. 

Meetings of the mayor's committee and the parade 
committee were held frequently and every detail of the 
arrangements was settled in season and with perfect har- 
mony. An appropriation of $6,500 for the celebration ex- 
penses was recommended by the mayor in his budget and 
passed by the aldermen on April 14, 1922. On June 23, 
1922, the sum of $3,000 was added to this appropriation, 
making $9,500 in all, which provided for all the expenses 
of the occasion and left a small balance. 

Page six 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

PROGRAMME OF PATRIOTIC AND 
HISTORICAL MEETING 

Monday Evening, July 3, 1922, in High School Hall 

Mayor John M. Webster, Presiding 
<«> ♦ 

Concert by the Somerville Orchestra, Morris W. Moore, 
leader. 

Opening remarks, Mayor John M. Webster. 

Reading, "The House by the Side of the Road," Sam Walter 

Foss, by Miss Mollie Foss. 
Original ode by Rev. E. Tallmadge Root, ''The City of 

Homes and of History." 
Introduction by Mayor of guests on the platform: — 
Walter S. Barnes, of Brookline, member of the first Com- 
mon Council, in 1872. 
Hon. George A. Bruce, mayor of Somerville, 1878, '79 and 

'80. 
Hon. Albion A. Perry, mayor of Somerville, 1896, '97 and 

'98. 
Hon. Leonard B. Chandler, mayor of Somerville, 1904 and 

1905. 
Hon. John M. Woods, mayor of Somerville, 1909 and 1910. 
Hon. Zebedee E. Cliff, mayor of Somerville, 1914, '15, '16 

and '17. 
Hon. Charles W. Eldridge, mayor of Somerville, 1918, '19, 

'20 and '21. 
William P. Mitchell, clerk of committees from 1882 to 1915. 
National airs, orchestra. 
Address, Hon. Albion A. Perry, read by Ex- Alderman James 

W. Kenney. 
Remarks, Hon. Charles L. Underbill, member of Congress 

from the Ninth Massachusetts District. 
Announcements by Enoch B. Robertson, president of the 

Board of Aldermen and chairman of Parade Committee. 
Singing, "America," audience. 
Concert, Somerville Orchestra. 

Page seven 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



PATRIOTIC AND HISTORICAL ADDRESS 
By Honorable Albion A. Perry 

Mayor of Somerville, 1896, '97 and '98 
<«> ♦ 

For the high honor conferred upon me by the Com- 
mittee who arranged the order of exercises for this meet- 
ing, I am profoundly grateful. And yet, had I realized the 
magnitude and difficulty of the undertaking at the time the 
invitation to be your speaker on this occasion was extended 
to me, it is probable that I should have asked to be excused 
from so onerous a service. My perplexity and misgivings 
have not been due to any lack of materials for the prepara- 
tion of an historical address, but rather to a bewildering 
excess of such materials, from which it has seemed almost 
impossible to make a selection that would either satisfy 
your expectations or relieve me from a sense of humiliating 
failure. I am sure that it would have been more pleasing 
had a younger and better-equipped man been chosen to 
voice your pride and joy in this celebration of our city's 
year of jubilee. I crave your pity no less than your 
patience in my vain effort to condense into an hour's ad- 
dress the events and developments on Somerville soil cov- 
ering a period of nearly three hundred years. It is indeed 
the task of "crushing Olympus into a nut." 

Nominally, it is true, we have met to celebrate the 
Fiftieth Anniversary of the Incorporation of Somerville as 
a City, but that fact furnishes no justification for confining 
our attention solely to the last half century of our munici- 
pal life. Such a restriction would be fatal to any correct 
portrayal of the history and characteristics of our city. It 
would be akin to an attempted description of a beautiful 
tree that referred only to the branches and leaves, with no 
mention of its far-reaching roots and stately trunk. 

Page eight 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



In the very beginning, I must ask you to keep in. mind 
the fact that our beloved home city has had an independent 
life of only four-score years; that for more than two cen- 
turies it was, in area, just a corner of the ancient town of 
Charlestown. Somerville would be an ungrateful daughter 
if she did not on this auspicious occasion acknowledge her 
debt of gratitude and love to the Mother City from whom 
she received such a precious legacy of patriotic memories. 
Generous old mother she has proved, for from her fruitful 
loins have sprung some of the fairest of our Middlesex 
cities and towns. In the presence of one who should feel 
inclined to chide her for her present shrunken and soberly- 
appareled form, she might well point to Somerville, Med- 
ford. Maiden, and her other comely and prosperous daugh- 
ters and say, in the spirit and words of the noble Roman 
matron: "These are my jewels and ornaments." Wherever 
in this address reference is made to occurrences which took 
place in Somerville prior to 1842, you will know that the 
name of our city is used merely to indicate that part of 
Charlestown which is now Somerville. 

The real celebration of the semi-centennial of Somer- 
ville as one of the cities of our grand old Commonwealth 
will take place tomorrow, when the patriotic spirit of our 
people will find expression in waving flags, ringing bells, 
soul-stirring music, booming cannon, far-reaching proces- 
sions, exciting games and blazing fireworks. Our meeting 
this evening is only a prelude to the morrow's joyous car- 
nival. Mr. Mayor: It is much to your credit, and to the 
credit of your associates on the Committee, that our great- 
est national holiday was selected for the Somerville cele- 
bration. It is the day which commemorates the political 
emancipation of a brave people, proclaimed to the world in 
a Declaration of Independence which is humanity's grand- 
est charter of liberty. God himself seems to have recog- 
nized its holiness by choosing it as the day for calling from 
earth to heaven both the author of the Declaration, Thomas 

Page nine 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



Jefferson, of Virginia, and its most powerful advocate, John 
Adams, of Massachusetts, both of those illustrious states- 
men having died on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption 
of the Declaration. There is a like appropriateness in the 
place where we are now assembled. No better spot than 
this historic hilltop could have been found for reviewing 
the career of a city whose very soil is sanctified by patriotic 
memories. 

The history of Somerville as a white man's dwelling- 
place has its beginning far back in the seventeenth century. 
It is believed that an exploring party, led by Myles Stand- 
ish, in 1621, were the first white men to set foot on what is 
now Somerville soil. Seven years later, in the summer of 
1628, another small company of men, setting out from 
Salem, journeyed across country until they reached the 
valley of the Mystic River. They follov/ed the course of the 
stream until they found themselves in a spot which seemed 
to possess many advantages as a place of permanent resi- 
dence. Here they decided to make their homes, and in so 
doing laid the foundations of Charlestown. Their descrip- 
tion of the Mystic valley, which embraced the northeasterly 
part of Somerville, was not altogether flattering. They 
declared that it was "generally full of stately timber, while 
round about was an uncouth wilderness." Other contem- 
porary writers seemed to find the region more attractive, 
for they speak of "frequent areas of open lands . . . 
ready for the plough and tillage without much labor;" of 
beautiful open land, mixed with goodly woods; of marshes 
rich in the production of hay, "of which the cattle feed and 
like ;" of fertile, grass-grown meadows and wooded hills. 

Great admiration was expressed by the writers of that 
early time for the abundance of native fruits, nuts and 
flowers everywhere to be had. This may seem strange to 
the present generation, who know Somerville only by its 
streets of closely-built houses, its well-paved squares, its 
hilltops crowned with happy homes and imposing public 

Page ten 



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FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



buildings. But it is clearly understood by those of you who, 
like myself, and less than fifty years ago, were wont to 
gather wild strawberries on the slopes of the Ten Hills 
Farm, and many native flowers on the summit of Convent 
Hill. The streams were full of fish, as some of us can 
readily believe who have seen with our own eyes the waters 
of Alewife Brook swarming with the fish from which it took 
its name, and have caught hundreds of silvery smelts in 
yonder Mystic River. Deer roamed the woods where our 
finest houses now stand. Governor Dudley, writing to the 
Countess of Lincoln, tells of partridges "as big as our hens," 
and great wild turkeys, "exceeding fat, sweet and fleshy." 
Flocks of wild pigeons were often seen flying swiftly 
through the air, on one occasion in such a dense mass as to 
obscure the light and cause the startled onlookers to inter- 
pret the incident as an omen of impertding evil. Wolves, 
rattlesnakes and mosquitoes, a few of the last named still 
surviving, were among the less attractive of Nature's 
products described by the early historians. One reputable 
writer narrates: "Beares they be common, being a great 
blacke kind of Beare, which be most feirce in Strawberry 
time." 

When first viewed by the white man, the hills of Somer- 
ville were more in number, and not less in beauty, than 
those which were considered the crowning glory of ancient 
Rome. The most prominent of them still remain, with con- 
tours practically unchanged, while others have been leveled 
to provide fiUing material for the far-stretching marshes 
by which they were in part surrounded. Through the val- 
leys meandered several clear and sparkling streams, with 
outlets into the Charles and Mystic rivers. With the ex- 
ception of Alewife Brook, they have long since disappeared, i 
their waters having been diverted to underground drains I 
and sewers. 7 

The climate of Somerville remains today essentially 
the same as it was in the 17th century if we may credit 

Page eleven 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



the records kept by the first settlers. Then, as now, there 
were exasperating extremes of heat and cold which caused 
oft-repeated complaint. It has proved itself, nevertheless, 
favorable to physical health and longevity no less than to 
mental activity and achievement. 

Among those who first settled in Charlestown, a small 
contingent established homes in the district "without the 
Neck" which was afterwards set off to form the Town of 
Somerville. One of the number was the first resident Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, John Winthrop, whose home was 
the Ten Hills Farm, bordering on the Mystic River. In the 
waters of this stream, near the Governor's house, on the 
fourth day of July, 1631, was launched the first ship ever 
built in Massachusetts, the "Blessing of the Bay." 

The white man's title to the lands of Somerville was 
derived from two sources, the one from royal grants, a 
typical robber's title resting upon no better foundation than 
the forcible seizure of territory by a powerful nation from 
those who were too ignorant to know and too weak to de- 
fend their rights in the premises. The other source was a 
grant from an Indian chieftain, who was beguiled into the 
exchange of these Somerville hills and vales, together with 
other valuable lands, for "twenty and one coates, ninten 
fathoms of wampum, and three bushels of corne." 

The men who first laid their hearthstones and kindled 
the fires of family love and devotion in this favored spot 
where we now have our homes were men of heroic mould. 
They were endowed with fine intellectual powers, were am- 
bitious and resourceful far beyond the requirements of 
their simple farmer-life. Such men did God choose for the 
builders of a new world in v/hich humanity should find an 
answer to its age-long prayer for freedom and opportunity 
to attain to its best estate. Little did our forefathers real- 
ize, when they set out to cross the trackless deep, that they 
held a commission from the Almighty himself to plant in 
virgin soil the seeds of a mighty RepubUc whose achieve- 

Page twelve 




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ments should dim by their splendor the records of all the 
nations of the past. Their first years were years of hard- 
ship, peril, disease and death. Houses must be built, for- 
ests felled, farms cleared, industries established, churches 
and schools provided. The Indians by whom they were 
surrounded were a standing menace, the food supply was 
meagre, and there were no adequate means of combatting 
the sicknesses which resulted in alarming fatalities. But 
they steadfastly held to their God-appointed task until the 
sky brightened and the divine purpose was revealed to 
them. 

Despite the hardships and perils of this pioneer life in 
a strange land, there were compensating features which 
disclose an unspeakable charm to the student of history. 
The family life in those scattered farmhouses was simple 
and sweet, its quiet joys outnumbering all the sorrows. As 
a rule there was a morning and evening service of scripture 
reading and prayer at the humble family altar which at- 
tuned the souls of the devout worshipers to the higher 
harmonies of the spiritual world, and no meal was eaten 
without an invocation of the divine blessing. 

Thus prepared for the daily duties and the nightly 
slumbers, the members of the household toiled and rested 
from their toil with the persistency and serenity of true 
Christians. The farmer tilled the land, the miller ground 
the grain, the lumberman felled the trees, the fisherman 
cast the net and dropped the hook, while others pursued a 
variety of vocations to serve the needs of the slowly-grow- 
ing population. Within the home, the housewife, brave and 
resourceful as her husband, cooked the food, carded 
the wool, spun the yarn, and in many cases wove 
the cloth and made the garments worn by her- 
self and by her husband and children. The boys 
and girls worked almost as hard as their parents. It was 
a toilsome, but in some respects an idyllic sort of life. 
Recreation, in the modern sense of the word, was virtually 

Page thirteen 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



unknown. There was no victrola in the house, no golf links 
in the fields. The only music was the song of the spindle 
and the loom, and the singing at eventide of the sacred 
hymns learned in the churches which it was the custom 
punctually to attend. So primitive and rural in its every 
aspect was the Somerville of those early days that it was 
designated by the people of the surrounding country as the 
"Cow Commons" and the "Stinted Pasture." It received 
these homely names because of the fact that the dwellers 
in Charlestown drove their cows across the "Neck" to feed 
on the fine grazing grounds of our Somerville hills and 
valleys. Each morn the music of the herdsman's horn was 
wafted through the still air as a signal to the farmers to 
have their cattle in readiness for the long morning drive. 

The constant threat of attack by Indians, and later by 
Frenchmen, made the doctrine of military preparedness 
popular and important to the farmer-folk of Somerville in 
the seventeenth century. They therefore enrolled them- 
selves in military organizations, and helped to build defen- 
sive fortifications in and around Boston and Charlestown. 
One of the earliest to win distinction as a military leader 
was Major-General Edward Gibones, whose name stands 
out with commanding prominence among the very first 
settlers of Somerville. 

The heroic spirit of the men who first made their 
homes here was shown by the manner in which they re- 
sisted and overcame the haughty aggressions of Sir 
Edmund Andros, who was commissioned by King George 
to exercise autocratic rule over the Massachusetts Bay 
colonists. Andros went so far as to deny the validity of 
the titles by which Somerville farmers held their lands, and 
in other ways roused the ire of those liberty-loving men. 
Notwithstanding that he held credentials from the British 
King, he was arrested and imprisoned and an end was made 
of his unprovoked tyrannies. 

Page fourteen 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



The fetters of foreign rule were gradually tightening 
around the limbs of those self-reliant New England men. 
The friction became at last too painful to be borne with 
patience by those who aspired to be absolutely free. This 
is not the time for a recital of the events that led to the 
revolt of the American colonies and brought on the Revo- 
lutionary War. We may, however, indicate in a general 
way the immediate cause of hostilities, and make brief 
reference to the part played by Somerville in that momen- 
tous struggle which added a new star of the first magnitude 
to the world's constellation of nations. The story, in its 
main features, is familiar to you all. 

The treatment of the Colonies by King George and his 
ministers grew continually more autocratic and oppressive. 
In 1774 a long series of restrictive measures on the part of 
the British Government culminated in the enactment of the 
Boston Port Bill which placed a disastrous embargo on 
Boston and Charlestown, amounting to a complete blockade 
of the port upon which the welfare of the people depended. 
The British had sent over strong military and naval forces 
to intimidate and coerce the colonists. On Somerville soil 
one of the first hostile acts on the part of the British oc- 
curred, when a detachment of troops landed at the Ten 
Hills Farm, marched to the Powder House on Quarry Hill 
and seized the powder stored there. This, with other offen- 
sive movements by the British forces, alarmed and angered 
the people. Armed men by the thousand marched to the 
defence of their homes and their liberties. They were fast 
being driven to a decision to divorce themselves from for- 
eign rule, and establish a free state with "a government of 
laws and not of men." 

The least sagacious mind could not fail to see that a 
state of war already existed, and a choice must be made by 
the colonists between submission and resistance to British 
tyranny. There could be no doubt of the nature of the 
decision in a community that was dominated by the spirit 

Page fifteen 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



of John Hancock, James Otis and Samuel Adams. The high 
resolve was promptly taken to meet force with force, to 
repel every assault upon the liberties of the people. 

It became known in Boston that a detachment of 
British troops was about to march stealthily at night to 
Concord for the purpose of seizing the military stores of the 
colonists deposited there. To thwart this purpose, and also 
to prevent the capture of Hancock and Adams, who were 
then in Lexington, Paul Revere was commissioned to give 
warning to the Middlesex yeomen of the impending foray. 
It was over the slopes of yonder Winter Hill that he rode 
on that fateful night in April just 147 years ago. Never 
did the clatter of a horse's feet send a more prolonged echo 
adown the sounding corridors of time. Its music still rings 
in every patriot's ears. From this fair hilltop where we 
are now gathered we can see the spot where the signal lan- 
terns gleamed in the belfry of the Old North Church to 
guide the impetuous horseman on his thrilling midnight 
ride. 

Great was the consternation of the farmer-folk of 
Somerville, dwelling in widely-separated houses, as they 
were awakened from sleep by the tramp of soldier feet 
along Washington street, Somerville avenue, Elm street and 
connecting highways on the eighteenth of April, 1775. 
They sprang from their beds, peered into the darkness, and 
dimly beheld a strange and fearsome spectacle. It was 
nothing less than a body of British soldiers marching across 
country on their way to Lexington and Concord, where, on 
the morrow, they were to suffer ignominious defeat in an 
engagement with valiant Minute Men and the rudely-armed 
farmers who "fired the shot heard round the world." We 
do well in Massachusetts to hold that day in sacred remem- 
brance, for it was consecrated by deeds of heroism that 
make one of the most glorious chapters in American his- 
tory. 

Page sixteen 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



While the battle was raging at Lexington Common and 
the old North Bridge at Concord, the men of Somerville 
found time to collect their thoughts and mature their plans. 
On the evening of the nineteenth the defeated and demoral- 
ized troops again passed through Somerville. Near the 
corner of Elm and Beech streets they were subjected to a 
rain of Yankee bullets. From that point on, until they 
reached Charlestown Neck, they were constantly under fire 
of the American soldiers and citizens. The shot from many 
a farmer's musket found its mark in the red coat of a Brit- 
ish soldier. Only one Somerville man, James Miller, lost his 
life that day. He stoutly refused to join his comrades in a 
hurried retreat to a place of safety, calmly saying: "I am 
too old to run." The first patriot's blood shed on Prospect 
Hill flowed from his veins, and around the same historic 
eminence the first guard in the Revolutionary War was 
mounted. 

The military drama enacted in April, on a stage ex- 
tending from Boston to Concord, was followed two months 
later by the Battle of Bunker Hill. In that famous en- 
counter the soil of Somerville served as a background and 
rallying point for the Yankee soldiers. The battle was 
counted by the British as a notable victory ; but it proved 
to be one of those victories that are worse than any defeat. 
It was a supreme test of the indomitable courage of the 
American soldier. It disclosed the magnitude of the con- 
test now on between the forces of freedom and oppression. 
The patriot blood shed on the slopes of that old Charles- 
town Hill quickened with its fertilizing streams the deter- 
mination of the colonists to sunder forever the fetters of 
kingly rule. Somerville was the scene of many a thrilling 
exploit on that epoch-making day. Even before the fight- 
ing began, fortifications were set up on Prospect Hill, and 
a regiment of Berkshire men was encamped near-by. Cob- 
ble Hill, Winter Hill and Convent Hill were all occupied by 
our army. Detachments of American soldiers marched to 

Page seventeen 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



and fro across our soil, alternately advancing and retreat- 
ing with the varying fortunes of the battle or in compli- 
ance with the demands of strategy. The British com- 
manders learned on that June day the seriousness of the 
task they had undertaken, while Englishmen at home were 
saying : "If it cost a thousand men to take Bunker Hill, how 
many will it cost to capture all the hills in America?" 

To narrate even the most important events which took 
place on Somerville soil during the earlier years of the 
Revolutionary War would require far more time than is 
now at my command. Again and again you have been told 
of the splendid deeds of daring done by the men in that f ar- 
oif time who rallied to the defence of their homes and lib- 
erties. They were proud to give their all in such a cause. 
Their farms were transformed into fortifications, and their 
peaceful lives disturbed by the din of war. Every hill was 
furrowed with intrenchments, while the manoeuvres of 
bodies of infantry and artillery became as familiar as the 
movements of the husbandman in the field or the housewife 
in the home. Great military commanders, like Putnam, 
Prescott, Warren and Lee, were seen riding along the high- 
ways, and even the mighty Washington himself added the 
majesty of his presence to the manifold glories of our 
Somerville hills. From the summit of Prospect Hill, on the 
first day of January, 1776, the flag of the United Colonies 
was unfurled, the first American flag of truly national im- 
port that ever waved in the face of a foe. Can we, the 
inheritors of such sacred memories, some of us descendants 
of the men who wrote in blood the title deeds of our inde- 
pendence; can we, I ask, stand on any one of these conse- 
crated hilltops without hearing voices saying to us, as from 
the burning bush of old, 'Tut off thy shoes from off thy 
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" ? 

It is to men like those who first trod our Somerville 
soil and had a part in the struggles to which I have 
referred, that we of today are indebted for the priceless 

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FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

heritage of freedom we now enjoy. They were men of far- 
reaching vision. Under no trivial impulse, and for no friv- 
olous purpose, did they brave the perils of the sea and set 
up their hearthstones in a strange and inhospitable land. 
They knew the evils and defects of the hereditary mon- 
archy under which they had hitherto lived, and were eager 
to escape from its thraldom. They believed that govern- 
ment should be a real partnership of the people, embracing 
in its membership the humblest as well as the highest, the 
poorest as well as the richest, each contributing in the 
measure of his ability to the common welfare and advance- 
ment. Such a government would express the will and wis- 
dom of the governed, and progress with the growing intel- 
ligence of mankind. The fundamental concepts of the dem- 
ocracy which they had espoused,' they embodied in the 
immortal charters of liberty written with their pens and 
sealed with their blood. Hence, even to-day, our every 
search for the true gospel of democracy leads us back to 
the Bills of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and 
the Constitution of the United States. So long as history 
is written or read, so long as this great American Republic 
shall endure, those pioneers of freedom will be held in 
grateful and reverential memory. It was their God-given 
privilege to demolish the doctrine of the divine right of 
kings, and exalt the citizen to a rank superior to that of 
monarch or potentate ; to frame a political system upon the 
eternal principles of justice and equality; to do away with 
every form of aristocracy, save the aristocracy of intellect 
and conscience. Through the long and direful years of that 
mighty struggle for independence the colonists held to 
their lofty purpose until victory finally perched upon their 
banners. The English and Hessian armies were hopelessly 
defeated, a new Republic had been added to the sisterhood 
of nations, and Great Britain had lost the brightest jewel 
in her imperial crown. 

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FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



The War of the Revolution at an end, the residents of 
Somerville again applied themselves assiduously to the arts 
of peace. Those ambitious and untiring freemen found 
abundant labor for the employment of hand and brain. 
They were the initiators of a great variety of undertakings 
that ultimately brought wealth according to the modest 
standards of their time. One of the most important and 
lucrative of these industries was the making of bricks. In 
several localities brick yards were to be seen, and some of 
us remember the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire 
by night that marked the locations of the burning kilns. 
Long after the manufacture of bricks had ceased, the un- 
sightly and dangerous clay pits remained, the home of the 
catfish and bullfrog. Our Broadway and Lincoln Parks are 
located on spots where the pits, many of them filled to a 
considerable depth with water, long stood as a menace to 
the lives of our children. The quarrying of stone was also 
carried on from an early date, while dairy farming attained 
to such proportions that the main thoroughfare across 
Somerville, from Charlestown to North Cambridge, was 
called Milk Row. With the growth of population, and after 
the incorporation of Somerville as a town, additional in- 
dustries were established, including bleachery and dye 
works, rope walks, spike works, a pottery, grist mill, dis- 
tillery, glass factory, and in recent years extensive slaught- 
ering and rendering establishments. Marketing of the 
commodities first produced in Somerville was not the easy 
thing it is today. Until the first bridges were built from 
Charlestown and Cambridge to Boston, near the close of 
the eighteenth century, the people were obliged to travel 
nearly ten miles over rough highways to reach the New 
England Metropolis where their wares could be sold. 

The first public highway in Somerville was Washing- 
ton street, extending from Charlestown Neck to Cambridge, 
then called "New Town." Shortly afterwards the easterly 
end of Broadway was laid out. Still later, rangeways, one- 
Page twenty 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



fourth mile apart, were dedicated to public use. Those 
ancient rangeways are now among our longest and most- 
traveled streets, which we know by the names of Franklin, 
Cross, Walnut, School, Central, Cedar, Willow avenue, 
Curtis and North. 

Down to the time of the setting off of Somerville from 
Charlestown there were but few families residing on our 
soil. It was chiefly a community of farmers who, in several 
cases, owned large tracts of land. The Tufts family alone 
once held more than a tenth of the entire acreage of Somer- 
ville. The Ten Hills Farm, the easterly part of which lies 
in Somerville, was another of those extensive landed es- 
tates. It was, as has already been said, the home of Gov- 
ernor Winthrop, where he carried on farming operations on 
a large scale, and indulged his taste for fishing and shoot- 
ing. When I first came to Somerville a little more than 
fifty years ago, I found much pleasure in sauntering along 
the green stretches of the farm, strolling through the 
rooms of the old mansion house and slave quarters, and 
picturing in my mind the festivities which had taken place 
there. From the lips of William Jaques, son of Colonel 
Jaques to whom the farm was granted in consideration of 
valuable military services, I received minute details of the 
lives and activities of the former owners of the farm. The 
stock farm carried on by Colonel Jaques was famous in its 
day for its herds of blooded cattle, horses and sheep, its 
deer park, and its pack of well-trained hounds. The greater 
part of the farm is now occupied by the homes of an intelli- 
gent and contented people, though a considerable tract is 
still vacant and unsightly, deeply scarred by the quarry- 
man's blasts and the resistless thrusts of the steam shovel. 

Few towns in the United States have such a unique and 
precious relic as Somerville possesses in its old Powder 
House. For more than two centuries it has crowned the 
low eminence in the westerly part of our city, now made 
beautiful as a public park and bearing the name of its gen- 

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FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



erous donor, Nathan Tufts, himself one of our most highly 
respected townsmen. Around its gray walls history and 
romance have woven a fabric of surpassing interest and 
charm. At first it served as a mill for the grinding of the 
farmers' grain and was afterwards conveyed to the State 
for use as a powder magazine. 

Even before the incorporation of Somerville as a town 
several important institutions, of more than local interest, 
were established within our borders. One of the most 
worthy of these, housed in imposing and commodious brick 
buildings, was the McLean Asylum for the Insane. It was 
located on Cobble Hill, and opened to receive patients in 
1818. Here it bestowed its humane benefactions upon the 
unfortunate until its removal to a more quiet situation was 
demanded. 

The Ursuline Convent crowned our beautiful Mount 
Benedict. It was a noble institution established for the 
mental training and Christian nurture of young women. 
Although conducted under Roman Catholic auspices it ex- 
tended its benign privileges to representatives of all sects 
and creeds, and was even more largely patronized by Prot- 
estants than by Catholics. The destruction of its fine and 
hospitable buildings in 1834 by an ignorant and brutal mob 
is one of the darkest chapters in the history of Somerville. 

For many years there had been a growing discontent 
in the minds of those dwelling "outside the Neck" with the 
treatment they were receiving from the pubhc authorities 
of Charlestown. Movements were set on foot for a com- 
plete separation from the mother town, and in the year 
1842, by an act of the General Court, the Town of Somer- 
ville, as it now exists territorially, came into being. The 
event was heralded with loud acclaim. The new town im- 
mediately proceeded to perfect its legal organization by 
electing five of its leading citizens to serve as the first 
Board of Selectmen. As compared with the present time it 
was a day of small things. The population of the town was 

Pa0e twenty-two 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



then only 1,013. The total expenditures for all municipal 
purposes during the first twelve months was less than 
$6,000. Radical improvements and extensions were de- 
manded in highways, schools and other departments, and 
the work was faithfully and economically performed from 
year to year by honest, sagacious and public-spirited offi- 
cials. The growth in population for many years was slow, 
but the fev/ families who established homes for themselves 
in Somerville were of the very best type. They came in 
considerable numbers from Cape Cod, Maine and New 
Hampshire, and brought with them the high qualities of 
mind and morals that have distinguished the communities 
in which they originally dwelt. 

The men who started Somerville on its municipal 
career were inexperienced in the duties which they were 
called upon to perform ; they were obliged to work with few 
and imperfect tools; but they were serious and honest of 
purpose, with Yankee keenness of intellect and an inborn 
genius for leadership. Their breadth and solidity of char- 
acter was written on their faces, as any of you may see by 
looking upon the photographs of the last Somerville Board 
of Selectmen and the first Board of Aldermen hanging in 
our City Hall. 

While Somerville was still under a town form of gov- 
ernment many improvements were undertaken and carried 
out which conduced in large measure to growth of popula- 
tion and the comfort of the people. Important highways 
were laid out, illuminating gas was introduced, a public 
water supply acquired, a sewer system inaugurated, land 
purchased for our Central Hill Park, and the first high 
schoolhouse built. In 1864 the first street railway was con- 
structed connecting Union Square with East Cambridge 
and Boston. 

The time at last came when the public affairs of the 
town had become too important and complex to be man- 
aged efficiently by a board of selectmen, hence, in the year 

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FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



1871, pursuant to an act of the Legislature, Somerville 
adopted a city charter, and in the following year inaugu- 
rated its first Mayor and City Council. 

I have dwelt so long upon matters relating to Somer- 
ville's early days, that little time remains for considering 
the city's record of accomplishments during the last fifty 
years. Perhaps this has been, in some respects, the best 
course to pursue. If I have been able to show you, even in 
the most imperfect way, a municipal tree with deep-run- 
ning roots and sturdy, well-proportioned trunk, you may be 
sure of healthy, vigorous branches and abundant, beautiful 
leaves. All of this we find in a survey of the city's history 
since its incorporation in 1872. It has been blest with 
worthy sons of noble sires, with daughters proud of the 
inheritance of exalted womanhood received from mothers 
who v/ere the embodiment of every feminine virtue. It has 
cherished and maintained the lofty standards at first set up. 

While we recount with pride the achievements of the 
men who laid the foundations of Somerville and estab- 
lished the policies which have led to its present high 
standing among the cities of the Commonwealth, let us 
not disparage nor think lightly of the efforts of those upon 
whom their mantle fell. The things that have the largest 
place in the life of today, the institutions and agencies from 
which we chiefly derive comfort, prosperity and happiness, 
have either been organized or perfected during the last 
fifty years. This is true of nearly all of the churches that 
minister to our spiritual needs, and the schools that train 
and discipline the minds of our boys and girls. To the 
mayors and other public officials who have transacted the 
business of the city since its incorporation, we are indebted 
for our well-nigh perfect systems of water, sewers, parks 
and playgrounds. They have laid out and paved many 
miles of streets and sidewalks, making them bright and 
safe at night by the most-approved method of electric 
lighting. They have given us departments of police, fire 

Page twenty- four 




£ EK 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



and health that are models of efficiency. They have estab- 
lished and maintained a public library of highest rank. 

I wish that it came within the scope of this address to 
pay a tribute of appreciation and gratitude to the men and 
women who have made the largest contributions to the up- 
building of our city in the pubHc positions which they have 
held. But the list is far too long, and any attempted selec- 
tion of the most conspicuous examples would result in 
grave injustice to those whose names were omitted. The 
record is accessible to all, and there need be little fear that 
such earnest and conscientious service will be forgotten by 
the generations yet to come. It has been my privilege to 
enjoy an intimate acquaintance with nearly all of the 
public men of Somerville during the last fifty years, and 
without the slightest exaggeration I can say that they have 
been models of efficiency and integrity, and shining exam- 
ples of clean and high-minded manhood. 

We have had such upright and faithful officials be- 
cause of the fine quality of our citizenship. Public senti- 
ment in Somerville has ever been overwhelmingly in favor 
of clean and progressive government. It is only fair to say 
that the wise management of municipal afl^airs by the con- 
stituted authorities has been evenly matched by the activi- 
ties of men and women in private life. They have been men 
and women of splendid ideals, of serious purpose, of untir- 
ing energy, of inflexible integrity. They have aspired to 
the best things in every department of human welfare ; the 
best schools, the best churches, the best social order, the 
best sanitary conditions, the best philanthropies, the best 
administration of law. They have been forceful and self- 
reliant in the face of obstacles, receptive of new ideas, but 
conservative in their adherence to well-established princi- 
ples of conduct. They have manifested their characteris- 
tics and embodied their ideals in boards of trade, civic as- 
sociations, historical and Hterary societies, hospitals for the 
sick, homes for the aged and infirm, supervised playgrounds 

Page twenty-five 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



for the young, social welfare work for the betterment of 
conditions among those least able to help themselves, and 
in many other ways that need not now be named. The 
women's clubs have been among the largest and most use- 
fully active in the State. Local newspapers of the best 
type have been published, one of them, the Somerville 
Journal, now more than fifty years old, being generally rec- 
ognized as the leading suburban newspaper in New Eng- 
land. Banking institutions, of wide repute for sound and 
conservative management, have been established in differ- 
ent parts of the city to facilitate business operations and 
encourage habits of saving among the people. 

We have been honored as a city by having among our 
residents many who have won distinction in the fields of 
literature, science, music and art. At this time I can men- 
tion only a few of those who have achieved widest fame. 
Elbridge S. Brooks ranks among the most popular of our 
American historical writers, while the name of Sam Walter 
Foss is familiar and beloved in nearly every intelligent 
household in the land. In his poems he has expressed the 
spirit of democracy and the fundamentals of Christianity 
with incomparable fervor and charm. The character of his 
work is best indicated in his own lines : — 

He is the greatest poet 
Who will renounce all art. 
And take his heart and show it 
To any other heart. 

Those of us who were privileged to get close to the heart of 
that rarely-gifted man know how tender and sound and 
true it was, what fountains of blessing issued from it for 
the refreshment of his fellowmen. The name of Professor 
Amos E. Dolbear stands high among those who have bene- 
fited humanity by their contributions to scientific knowl- 
edge and research. He was one of the pioneers in discov- 
eries and inventions that gave us the telephone. Chief of 

Page twenty-six 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

the many musicians of Somerville who have thrilled vast 
audiences with their masterly musical gifts, is the son of 
the well-remembered man who for many years was the 
musical instructor in our public schools. As one of the 
greatest of modern composers and orchestral leaders, he 
has made the name of Hadley familiar in many of the 
largest cities of America and Europe, and is still domg 
splendid work in his noble profession. But the number of 
these distinguished citizens is too great to permit of 
further mention of their names. 

There is no better measure of the character and 
standing of a city than its support of educational and relig- 
ious institutions, and here we may proudly point to the 
record The cause of education has always received gen- 
erous support from the citizens of Somerville. The schools 
of the town and city have been among the best of the Com- 
monwealth. Their management has been in the hands of 
committees and superintendents of recognized ability and 
progressiveness. Their teachers have pursued their high 
calling with fidelity and zeal. Beautiful and spacious 
school buildings have been erected in all parts of the city 
to meet the needs of a rapidly-growing population. We 
entered upon our career as a town with only 302 children 
of school age. Not quite eighty years have passed, and the 
number has grown to 18,414, of whom 14,000 are public 
school children. We have now thirty school buildings of 
the estimated value of $2,276,700, in which 452 teachers 
are employed. This year's appropriation for the school 
department is $1,301,325 including the sum of $325,000 for 
new buildings and additions to present buildings. 

Notwithstanding that some of its school buildings are 
in Medford, we claim Tufts College as one of our noblest 
Somerville institutions. It bears the name of a Somerville 
man Charles Tufts, who gave 100 acres of land as the site 
of the College, and its faculty are nearly all residents of our 
city. It has filled a large place in the intellectual life of 

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FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



this community, and we look with keen satisfaction upon 
its steady growth and ever-enlarging usefulness. For those 
who desire a modern business training, a well-equipped 
commercial college is provided by the Fisher Brothers on 
Winter Hill. 

For more than two centuries the inhabitants of Somer- 
ville were obliged to attend worship in the churches of 
Charlestown and Cambridge. The first church on our soil, 
known as the First Congregational (Unitarian), was 
erected on Highland avenue, a little to the east of our pres- 
ent City Hall, in 1845. Church organizations have multi- 
plied to keep pace with the growth of population, until now 
nearly all of the leading sects of Christendom are housed 
in places of worship provided by their devotion and zeal. 
In kindly catholicity of spirit they work together for the 
common good, seeking to hold our citizenship to the loftiest 
standards of Christian thought and life. It is worthy of 
note that recently, on Winter Hill, a synagogue has been 
dedicated to the worship of Jehovah in accordance with the 
rites of that ancient Hebrew faith in which our Christian 
religion was cradled, and from which it derives many of its 
holiest traditions and most binding sanctions. 

Without referring to the wars in Mexico and the Phil- 
ippines, that differed widely in principle from the other 
mighty contests in which our country has had a part, we 
may proudly recall that, since the incorporation of Somer- 
ville as a town, the patriotic temper of our people has been 
thrice tested in the fiery crucible of war. 

Following the close of the Mexican War, in 1847, the 
United States had enjoyed the blessings of peace only for a 
brief term of years when storm clouds again gathered in 
the nation's sky. The question of African Slavery, long a 
bone of contention between North and South, had become 
acute and threatening. A little woman, plying her pen in 
one of the beautiful college towns of the old Pine Tree 
State, had painted a picture, in her "Uncle Tom's Cabin," of 

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FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



slavery's ugliest features which awakened the slumbering 
conscience of the North. A fiery crusader of liberty had 
lighted a torch at Harper's Ferry whose flame blazed in 
every corner of the land. Clear- visioned men of the South, 
gazing upon the Virginia gallows from which the lifeless 
body of John Brown dangled, saw in the background the 
gleaming sword of Damocles hanging over the "peculiar 
institution" upon which their whole social and industrial 
system had been built. 

The Southern States, in order to save the "institution," 
and justifying their action by an appeal to the doctrine of 
State Sovereigntj'-, proceeded to adopt ordinances of seces- 
sion and thus withdraw from the Federal Union created by 
the Constitution. This monumental question of State Sov- 
ereignty had stood from the beginning as a menace to the 
peace and stability of the Republic. In its discussion in the 
National Senate Chamber, Webster and Calhoun had made 
generous contributions to the world's masterpieces of 
forensic oratory. It was to be finally settled by the merci- 
less arbitrament of war. 

In the month of February, 1861, the seceding States 
formed an independent government under the name of the 
Confederate States of America. On the twelfth of the fol- 
lowing April the first rebel shot was fired at Fort Sumter. 
It was now apparent that a day of judgment for national 
unrighteousness had been ushered in with the blare of 
bugles, the roar of cannon, and the tramp of martial men. 
After withstanding a fierce bombardment for thirty hours, 
the brave commander at Sumter was compelled to haul 
down the Stars and Stripes from the old fortress. On the 
very next day, April 15, President Lincoln issued his call 
for 75,000 volunteers for three months' service. What was 
the response of Somerville to the call? Three days after 
the President's appeal the members of the Somerville 
Light Infantry, the only military organization then in our 
city, assembled at their armory and enrolled recruits to fill 

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FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



vacancies. Under the command of George 0. Brastow, who 
later served as the first Mayor of Somerville, it was mus- 
tered into service as Company I, Fifth Regiment, Massa- 
chusetts Volunteer Militia. It reported for duty in Faneuil 
Hall on the 18th of April, and arrived in Washington on 
the 28th. It participated in the disastrous battle of Bull 
Run. 

The members of this Company, together with many 
other young men of the town, rendered valiant service on 
many a bloody battlefield, intrepidly following the colors 
until the last shot was fired, and Grant received the sword 
of Lee at Appomattox. Ninety-eight of those youthful 
heroes gave their all for the preservation of the Union, 
yielding up their lives in battle, in hospitals, and in loath- 
some prison pens. Of the 1,485 men enlisted in Somer- 
ville, few are now living on this side of the Great Divide, 
but the memory of their heroism and self-sacrifice will be 
forever cherished in the hearts of their countrymen. Be- 
cause of what they did and endured, we are today a united 
people, in our national life knowing neither North nor 
South, neither East nor West, and the shadow of slavery 
no longer dims the colors of our glorious flag. Those who 
were once estranged, their hearts filled with jealousy and 
hate, now dwell together in a splendid empire of peace and 
love. 

For more than fifty years we have had in our midst 
an organized body of the veterans of the Union Army. 
Thank God, some of its members are with us here tonight. 
Throughout its entire career it has been our best instructor 
in the school of genuine patriotism. In the forms of its 
blue-coated heroes, as they have marched through our 
streets on all great civic occasions, and especially on Me- 
morial Day, it has been the most impressive representa- 
tive of the majesty and glory of the Republic. Its ranks 
grow thinner with each passing year, and the day is not 
far distant when we shall hear the last roll-call of the Grand 

Page thirty 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

Army of the Republic ; but so long as a single survivor of 
that Army remains with us, he will be the recipient of our 
veneration and love. 

Just as the nineteenth century was drawing to a close, 
the young men of Somerville were put to another test of 
loyalty and valor. I need not tell you that there was no 
faltering when the call of country again sounded in their 
ears. Cheerfully they put on the uniform and embarked 
for the fair Cuban Isle to end the torture and butchery 
which Spanish soldiers were engaged in at our very doors. 
More than this: To them was assigned the righteous task 
of avenging the unprovoked act of perfidy on the part of 
Spain by which an American warship was destroyed in the 
harbor of Havana, and the mangled bodies of hundreds of 
our gallant sailors and marines were buried in the waters 
of the sea. Every duty demanded of our soldier boys in 
that short but important war was performed with courage 
and alacrity. Our Spanish War Veterans are worthy sons 
of the sires whose valiant deeds were recorded in blood on 
the fields of Shilch, Antietam and Gettysburg. 

In the summer of 1914 the world seemed to be in the 
enjoyment of an assured and enduring peace. Some of the 
wisest and most far-seeing men were positive in their con- 
viction that no great war would ever again take place 
among the nations. It was said that the peoples of the 
earth were so closely united by a community of com- 
mercial and financial interests that the ruling classes would 
never permit a resort to arms for the settlement of inter- 
national controversies. While the comforting words of 
prophecy were still warm on the lips, the dogs of war, made 
savage by long feeding on the doctrine of preparedness, 
bounded from their kennels and drove their fangs deep into 
humanity's throat. In a few short weeks Europe was in a 
welter of blood, and men began to fear that the light of 
Christian civilization was about to be put out. Germany, 

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FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



drunk with the spirit of imperialism and flushed with vic- 
tories on many fields, became insolent and aggressive 
towards neutral nations, demanding as a right created by 
necessity that she should have absolute control of the seas. 
The ultimatum which she finally presented to our own 
country in regard to ocean navigation was so haughty and 
insolent as to provoke the wrath of every American with a 
drop of red blood in his veins. We were compelled either 
to enter the contest, or stand forever after in the eyes of 
the world as a land of despicable cravens. The hour for 
decision had come. Our great peace-loving President 
framed his indictment of German autocracy in words that 
burned into the hearts of his countrymen, and solemnly 
called upon Congress for a declaration of war. We raised 
an army of four million men so quickly as to fill the hearts 
of our allies with amazement and joy, and convulse the 
souls of our adversaries with consternation and fear. The 
German war lords had said: "The Yankees will not fight," 
but after they had faced our young soldiers at Chateau- 
Thierry, Soissons, Belleau Wood, the St. Mihiel Salient, 
Argonne Forest, and on other bloody fields, those same war 
lords quickly changed the form of their declaration and 
said: "We will no longer fight." 

On no page of the world's history is there a prouder 
record of daring and achievement than was made by the 
American army on the fields of France. No task was too 
heavy for the hands of those intrepid soldier boys, no peril 
too appalling for their valiant souls. To them we may well 
apply those familiar lines of Emerson : — 

So nigh is grandeur to our dust, 
So near is God to man. 
When duty whispers low, Thou must, 
The youth replies, I can. 

While we extol the heroism of the two million young 
men who crossed the submarine-haunted sea, carrying their 

Page thirty-tzvo 



'"i'ftTeth anniversary celebration 

country's flag to victory amidst the smoke and flame of 
btttle, let us not forget to pay our tribute of honor and 
respect to the equal number of uniformed men who re- 
mafned on this side of the water, denied the privilege which 
They fondly craved of joining with their comrades in caging 
the'savage German beast and freeing •'"-f-tf *;" 
brutal ravages. They, too, were soldiers f t^e Kep"bhc 
willing and anxious to perform any service and make anj 
Ta riffce demanded of them by their country A much 
greater poet than Emerson has said of men like these.- 
They also serve who only stand and wait. 
SomerviUe has every reason to be proud of the part 
Played by her sons in that terrible world war She con- 
tributed 6,519 of the flower of her young manhood to the 
service, and of that number 122 made the supreme sacri- 
fice K time permitted, what a soul-stirring picture might 
be painted of the heroism of our SomerviUe boys on the 
shell-torn fields of France! The memory of two of them 
who dSd from wounds received in battle, wil henceforth 
be perpetuated in the names of our most ^P^^ous athletic 
field and our most beautiful public park. One of them, 
SaxtrFoss, son of our beloved and lamented poet-lAra- 
rian and inheritor of his father's genius, was of New Eng- 
Tnd Mrth and training. He proved himself the mcarna- 
ton of American valor at Veaux, Chateau-Thierry So s 
onn, and St Mihiel. His bravery won for him the Uistin 
"uihed Ser;ice Cross, and his name will be forever starred 
In gold on Soraerville's proudest roll of honor. The other 
w fVorce Dilboy, was one of our adopted sons, who first 
saw\heTght o day in that country of unparalleled renown 
Ter'thfnLes o^Miltiades -d ^-nida^^^ 
of twenty-five centuries, are st.U held m ^e^e'ence 
soldier who served in the armies of the Allies maae a 

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FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



and Thermopylae, and find no achievement more brilliant 
and death-defying than the exploit of Dilboy which took 
place near Belleau just four years ago this month. Stand- 
ing alone, he faced and made himself the target of a Ger- 
man machine gun mounted only one hundred yards away. 
Again and again he returned the fire of the Boche, but 
failed to silence the gun. He then rushed foi-ward, with 
bayonet fixed, towards the enemy's position. He fell to the 
ground, his body pierced by several German bullets and his 
right leg shot away. In that prone position he continued 
to discharge his gun with such deadly effect as to kill two 
of the enemy and cause the others to run away, leaving the 
dying Somerville boy complete master of the situation. To 
all of the young men of Somerville who were called to the 
colors in that great war for the preservation of liberty and 
democracy throughout the world, let us extend the greet- 
ings of warm and grateful hearts on this happy occasion. 
May we ever hold their deeds in fadeless memory, and prove 
to them by word and act in all the coming years that we 
recognize in them our defenders and saviors. 

The moral standards of our Somerville citizenship are 
clearly reflected in its attitude towards the liquor traffic, 
which has enabled us to bear the proud distinction of being 
the "Banner Temperance City of the Commonwealth." Not 
once, during the long period of local option, was a vote re- 
corded in favor of the sale of alcoholic intoxicants, and 
when at last the people of the whole country were given the 
opportunity to outlavv- forever a business which had become 
a national curse, they followed the example set by Somer- 
ville, and by means of a Constitutional Amendment made 
Prohibition a part of the organic law of the land. Proudly 
may we record on this joyous day that no mayor of this 
city has ever been compelled by vote of his constituents to 
affix his name and the city's seal to a license for the crea- 
tion of poverty, insanity and crime. It has meant much to 
our young men and young women that they could walk in 

Page thirty-four 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



every street and alley without beholding the grim spectacle 
of a licensed liquor saloon. And now that we have the 
humanity-saving law on the nation's statute books, let us 
see to it that it is impartially and inflexibly enforced. 

Eadical changes in our political system have taken 
place in the last fifty years, none more salutary and far- 
reaching than the complete enfranchisement of women. 
No longer do we invite the criticism and provoke the sneers 
of other nations by an attempt to maintain a democracy 
with one-half of the people politically enslaved. 

In the realm of science and invention during the last 
half century, the human mind has wrought astounding 
miracles. The lightning, which Franklin first interrogated 
with his kite, has become the willing servant of man in 
ways undreamed of fifty years ago. It now carries the 
human voice across oceans and continents without so much 
as a slender thread of metal to bind it to its task. The 
statesman at the national capital may orally plead his cause 
with his constituent a thousand miles away, and the prima 
donna's song, sung in the great metropolis, may at the same 
moment sing itself into the ears and hearts of a little family 
group in a remote rural cottage far out on the frontier. 
We have tied wings to ponderous engines, and sent them 
skyward to match the eagle's soaring and the swallow's 
flight. We have taught great monsters of the sea to dive 
beneath the turbulent waters, and swim their hidden course 
with the speed and precision of the finny tribes. There 
seems to be no limit to the conquests of human genius in 
this marvelous age in which we live. 

We may well glory in the things already accomplished, 
but let us not deceive ourselves with the thought that our 
most perplexing problems have been solved, that our hard- 
est work is already done. Eight years ago we fancied our- 
selves living in a stable world, with a well-ordered civiliza- 
tion and reasonable assurance of long-continued peace. A 
quick shot from the pistol of a crazy Serbian youth caused 

Page thirty- five 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



the whole world to tremble on its foundations, enthroned 
Moloch in the place of the Prince of Peace, and brought us 
face to face with the ghastly fact that our boasted civiliza- 
tion was merely a thin veneer. Today the peoples of the 
earth dwell amidst clouds and shadows. The fairest fields 
of France and Flanders serve as sepulchres for a vast army 
of young men slain, millions are already dead from famine 
and pestilence, while other millions await the same fate. 
Everywhere human hearts are poisoned with the corrosive 
acids of hatred and desire for revenge distilled in the seeth- 
ing alembic of war. We are citizens of the one country 
that can lead the perishing nations from the Egypt of 
misery and servitude where they now almost hopelessly 
languish to the Promised Land of peace, prosperity and 
brotherly love. If we shirk the mighty task which God has 
committed to our hands, it may be our fate and punish- 
ment to perish, as so many nations have perished in the 
past who have governed themselves by the laws of selfish- 
ness and greed instead of the immutable law of righteous- 
ness enacted by the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. 

Let me plead with you, my fellow-citizens, to take 
counsel at all times of your faith rather than your fears. 
Never doubt the ability of our country to lead her sister 
nations along the pathway of an ever-broadening, ever- 
brightening civilization. Turn a deaf ear to the man, how- 
ever exalted his position, who is continually crying out 
"America first," or insults the young manhood of our coun- 
try by telling them that they fought and their comrades 
died merely "to save their own skins." Proudly proclaim 
to all mankind that at every conference and before every 
tribunal, where a world problem is discussed or a world's 
destiny determined, America's place is at the head of the 
table, there to rebuke imperialism and autocracy, there to 
blot out secret treaties and compacts, there to champion the 
cause of international amity and peace. Look for inspira- 
tion to the men of vision and courage who laid the founda- 



Page thirty-six 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



tions of this magnificent Republic of ours. It fell to their 
lot to chart an unknown sea. This they did boldly, with no 
cringing awe of tradition and precedent. Along their path- 
way no guiding light shone save the torch of Liberty, held 
firmly in the hand of Justice. With their blood in our 
veins and their example before our eyes, shall we be faith- 
less and supine in the presence of today's problems and 
perils? Shall we skulk in their shadow and quote their 
words, uttered under radically different circumstances, in 
order to fill our pockets with gold or escape solemn duties 
disclosed to us amidst the hellish flames of war ? 

The true grandeur of America will be attained not by 
commercial supremacy, not by military strength and 
prowess, not by magnitude of population. We shall stand 
on the highest pinnacle of our pre-destined fame when the 
world looks to us for the finest development of art, science, 
music and literature; for the most perfect educational 
methods ; for the suppression of the brutality and misery 
of war; for emancipation from the evils that dwarf the 
brain and deaden the conscience; for a realization of that 
highest form of human happiness which results from 
obedience to God's unchanging moral law. 

Mr. Chairman: Thirty years ago, at the celebration of 
the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of Somerville 
as a town, a beloved ex-Mayor of the city, the honorable 
George A. Bruce, closed his masterly oration with a thrill- 
ing sentence which in spirit was a prayer. It voiced the 
hope and sounded the appeal that the ensuing fifty years 
of our city's record might continue "white and free from 
stain." Three-fifths of the period to which he then looked 
forward has passed. With pride which the human tongue 
can but feebly express, we may now assure him that the 
prayer has thus far been answered in the spirit of its utter- 
ance. During the thirty years that have elapsed since we 
listened to his fervent petition the men and women of this 
city have continued to fight the good fight in the cause of 

Page thirty-seven 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



a clean and progressive civilization ; they have held to the 
straight and luminous course laid out for them in the very- 
beginning of the nation's life; they have kept the faith in 
the principles of free representative government trans- 
mitted to them by the fathers ; they find their reward in the 
approval of an intelligent and high-minded citizenship num- 
bering nearly one hundred thousand souls. 

Some of us have already reached an age which forbids 
hope of participation in the glorious things that are yet 
to be in the history of our city, state and nation. But, 
despite all the confusion and unrest, despite every evil por- 
tent that now darkens our sky, we confidently believe that 
the better day is sure to dawn. My last words tonight shall 
be a solemn pledge of loyalty and service, spoken on behalf 
and in the name of the young manhood and womanhood of 
Somerville, to whom we must look for the realization of our 
dreams. We pledge ourselves to uncompromising fidelity 
to the principles of liberty and justice which inspired the 
hearts and shaped the lives of the men and women from 
whom we received the rich heritage of blessings which we 
now enjoy. We will choose for our public servants only 
those who are of recognized ability and integrity. We will 
safeguard and support the religious and educational insti- 
tutions which make for strong and noble manhood, for pure 
and exalted womanhood. We will add to the sweetness and 
security of family life by making longer and harder the 
pathway from the marriage altar to the divorce court. We 
will insist upon prompt and inflexible enforcement of all 
criminal laws through the orderly processes of the courts. 
We will put a stop to the lynching of colored men for real 
or imaginary offenses, and no longer give ear to any man 
or woman who seeks to escape the penalty for the crime of 
murder by invoking the protection of an "unwritten law." 
We will curb the capitalist who poisons the fountains of 
industry with his insatiable greed, and silence the profes- 
sional labor agitator who sows the seeds of hatred and un- 

Page thirty-eight 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



rest in the hearts of those who create the world's wealth by 
their daily toil. We will close every noisome den wherein 
pitfalls are laid for the feet of our boys and girls. We will 
foster and protect every agency which contributes to the 
development of a finer citizenship and adds to the richness 
and happiness of human life. All of these things each one of 
us will strive to do, thus winning the approval of our own 
conscience, the gratitude of all right-minded men and 
women, and the favor of Almighty God. 



Page thirty- nine 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

THE CITY OF HOMES AND HISTORY : 
AN ODE TO SOMERVILLE 

By Edward Tallmadge Root 

♦ <$> 

I. 

Weary, happy, eager, yearning. 
Unto thee are they returning, 
When the light which, all day colorless. 
Aided patiently their toil and stress, 
Freed, like them, sets all the sky aflame with raptures burning! 
While its joyous tints are glowing, 
What a human tide is flowing 
Over viaducts which span the spacious river. 
Where the west is mirrored and the long reflections quiver 
From the line of lamps that marches. 
On embankments and on arches, 
To escort them as in triumph to their home! 
Now a thousand score they come. 
They are drawn by steeds of steam escaping from a prison; 

They are borne by lightnings caught on labyrinths of wire; — 
Nay! what draws them is a hope once more arisen; 
'Tis the memory of thee, and ever fond desire! 

II. 

O thou City of our Homes, 

Can we ever cease to love thee? 
Or the one who farthest roams 

Find a place to choose above thee? 
Thou wast formed for our abode. 
When the purpose of our God 
Drave the plowshares of the glaziers through the land, 
Bade the torrents, at their melting, heap the sand, 
And between the merging rivers, 

Formed this stretch of highland, 

Left almost an island. 
With its sloping summits seven. 
Thus to thee was there forever given. 

Page forty 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



Not the mill which with its looms or forges quivers, 
Not the mart which only gathers and delivers; 

But, upon its shaded street, the cosy dwelling. 
Where men truly live, and making, buying, selling 
Find their motive and their goal; — 
School and library, the people's palaces of learning. 
Church with slender spire embodying the spirit's yearning, 
Thine, these workshops of the soul! 

III. 

Lovingly thy sister cities circle thee; 

And thy tree-arched streets descending 

Meet no barrier or ending. 

With their courts or highways blending 
In a friendship glad and free. 

But thy hilltops form a throne. 

Where a thousand homes may claim 

That their modest windows frame 
Pictures such as poets paint and monarchs fain would own! 

West and north the eye delights. 

Viewing green or granite heights 

Where the growing suburbs press 

On a cherished wilderness. 

And the Mystic winds between 

Through its marshes ever green. 

Eastward windows follow down 

To thine ancient mother-town, 

Where a massive obelisk 

Tells of Freedom's cost and risk. 

Others frame the gilded dome 

Of the Commonwealth's proud home; 

And, beyond, a statelier tower, 

Symbol of the Nation's power. 

Then successive windows measure 
Crowded miles of toil and treasure. 
Flecked with fanes of prayer or pleasure; 
Till the wearied vision rests 
Upon villa-dotted crests, , 

And a hill-top great and blue. 
Like a mighty sentinel to guard the southern view! 

Page forty-one 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



IV. 

Space is thus outspread before thy points of vantage; and in time 
They command the varied vistas of the years, 
Backward o'er heroic deeds and conquered fears; 
Forward, if our hearts deceive us not, to destiny sublime! 
Yankee clipper-ships have ventured every sea: 
But 'twas thine to lead the way 
When "The Blessing of the Bay" 
Dared the waters still uncharted and the winds, fitful and free. 

Thine is still the haunted tower 

Whence the plundered kegs of powder 
Roused the towns to feel their power 
And resentment rumbling louder, 
Till a steeple's signal light 
Bade one gallop through the night 
O'er thy hills to rouse the farmers for the morn of Concord's fight. 
Back through thee, the beaten British bands retreated; 

And through thee the patriots marched to Bunker Hill. 
Yet a happier height of thine their task completed. 

And unfurled the flag which triumphed then and triumphs still! 

V. 

Shall it conquer in the future, Somerville? 

Can thy gift yet save this wrecked, despairing world? 

Yea! if we forget not why it was unfurled; 
And exert today the patriot's dauntless will! 

But no longer count we any race our foes: 

For henceforth for weal or woe the world is one. 

To proclaim the rights of man our flag arose; 
Not, till all mankind is freed, its task is done! 

No! the foes to fear and fight lurk in our hearts. 

They are indolence and luxury and greed, 
Every vice that weakens, every grudge that parts, 

All divisive pride of color, class or creed. 

If we these subdue, impregnable thy wall. 

Built of harmony and happiness and health! 
Even poverty, most stubborn foe, shall fall, 

When we rightly learn to use our common wealth! 

Page forty-two 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



And such citizens as thine both dare and think. 

Differ may they, but indiff'rent can not be. 
First of cities thou, to ban the trade in drink: 

So, from all that harms, they plan to set thee free! 

Ah! I see thee with thy plans at last complete, 
Each defect that still disfigures swept away; 

Comfort, safety, beauty, where on every street 
Men exult to live and happy children play! 

our City, proud tonight of fifty years. 

Five times fifty, of thy childhood, were span. 

Now in this thine early manhood, laugh at fears! 
Take thy place in human progress with the van! 



Page forty-three 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD 

<$> 4> 

"He was a friend to man, and lived in a house by the side of 
the road." — Homer. 

<«> <S> 

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn 

In the peace of their self -content; 
There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart, 

In a fellowless firmament; 
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths 

Where highways never ran; — 
But let me live by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man. 



Let me live in a house by the side of the road, 

Where the race of men go by — 
The men who are good and the men who are bad, 

As good and as bad as I. 
I would not sit in the scorner's seat, 

Or hurl the cynic's ban; — 
Let me live in a house by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man. 

I sec from my house by the side of the road, 

By the side of the highway of life. 
The men who press with the ardor of hope. 

The men who are faint with the strife. 
But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears- 

Both parts of an infinite plan; — 
Let me live in my house by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man. 



Page forty-four 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead 

And mountains of wearisome height; 
That the road passes on through the long afternoon 

And stretches away to the night. 
But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice, 

And weep with the strangers that moan, 
Nor live in my house by the side of the road 

Like a man who dwells alone. 

Let me live in my house by the side of the road 

Where the race of men go by — 
They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong, 

Wise, foolish — so am I. 
Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat 

Or hurl the cynic's ban? — 
Let me live in my house by the side of the road 
And be a friend to man. 

Sam Walter Foss. 



Eorn in Candia, N. H., June 19, 185S; Librarian, Somerville Public 
Library, from 1898 to his death, February 26, 1911. 

From "Dreams in Homespun," Copyright, 1897, by Lee & Shepard. 
Used by permission of Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company. 



Page forty-five 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

ROUTE AND ROSTER OF THE PARADE 

The parade started at 9.30 a. m., July 4, 1922, from 
corner of Broadway and School street. 

♦ <s> 

ROUTE OF PARADE. 
Route : School street to Medf ord street, to Washington 
street, to Union Square, to Bow and Summer streets, to 
Central street, to Highland avenue, to Walnut street, coun- 
termarching on Highland avenue to Central street, thence 
to Davis Square, to College avenue, where parade was 
reviewed by the Chief Marshal, Mayor, invited guests and 
public and parade officials from stand erected near the West 
Somerville Baptist Church. 

HEAD OF PARADE. 

MOUNTED POLICE ESCORT 
Police Sergeant Frank H. Graves, Commanding. 

CHIEF MARSHAL 

Major Joseph E. Wiley. 

CHIEF OF STAFF 
Captain Myron A. MacGaffey. 

CHIEF MARSHAL'S STAFF 

Lieutenant-Colonel Frank L. Morse, 
Major George I. Canfield, 
Major Walter Hunt, 
Captain John Kenney, 
Captain George T. Day, 
Lieutenant Ralph G. Perkins, 
Lieutenant Albert F. McLean, 
Lieutenant Arthur Benoit, 
Lieutenant William S. George, 
Lieutenant John T. Kerr. 

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FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

FIRST DIVISION 

(Military) 

MARSHAL 

Commander Eugene W. Driscoll. 

CHIEF OF STAFF 
Linwood S. Oilman. 

FIRST DIVISION STAFF 

Major Walter A. Thomas, 

Lieutenant William A. Wardwell, 

H. J. McKenzie, 

Quartermaster James R. Philbrook, 

Wilfred J. McCarthy, 

H. S. Cole, 

Lieutenant William Frink, 

5th Regiment U. S. Infantry with "Coblenz Band," 
Colonel K. E. Knight commanding. 

U. S. Marine detachment and band. 

U. S. Navy detachment and band. 

101st Engineers, Mass. N. O. and band, Colonel John 
F. Osborn commanding. 

His Honor, the Mayor, invited guests and public offi- 
cials, in automobiles. 

Headquarters Troop, 110th Cavalry, Mass. N. G., Cap- 
tain A. E. Duncan commanding. 

♦ <$> 

SECOND DIVISION 

(VETERANS) 

MARSHAL 

Commander Arthur D. Healey. 

CHIEF OF STAFF 

Adjutant Lee C. Kitson. 
SECOND DIVISION STAFF 
Lieutenant George W. Pratt, of George Dilboy Post 
529, V. F. W. ; Amasa E. Googins, of W. C. Kinsley Post 139, 

Page forty-seven 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



G. A. R. A member of each unit in line was designated for 
staff. 

Ives Band. 

Willard C. Kinsley Post 139, G. A. R., Frank S. Badger 
commanding (in automobiles). 

Somerville Post 19, American Legion. 

Disabled war veterans in automobiles. 

George Dilboy Post 529, Veterans of Foreign Wars. 

Canadian Veterans Association, Vimy Camp 1. 

<3> <«> 

THIRD DIVISION 

MARSHAL 
Scout Commissioner Percy A. Brigham. 

CHIEF OF STAFF 
Captain Waldo W. Walker. 

STAFF SERGEANT 

Sergeant Charles M. Tyler. 

THIRD DIVISION STAFF 
Lieutenant Minot R. Edwards, 
Scout Commissioner James Williamson, 
Scout Commissioner W. F. Downe, 
Captain George A. Lawson, 
Sergeant Floyd F. Foster, 
Captain Ethel Durning, 
Captain Edna Durning, 
Major Ernest Dixon. 

ORDERLIES 

Scout Eldon Wedlock, Troop 3 ; Scout Edward Backus, 
Troop 10; Bugler, Arthur Jacobson, Troop 3. 

Newton Constabulary Band. 

Boy Scouts of America, Laurence A. Wentworth, de- 
partment commander, commanding. 

Page forty-eight 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



First Battalion, Willis E. Munroe, assistant depart- 
ment commander, commanding. 

Second Battalion, Cecil Taylor, deputy assistant com- 
mander, commanding. 

Girl Scouts, Sophie C. Bateman, commissioner; Cap- 
tain Florence Berry, commanding; Captain Marion Burn- 
ing, Captain Ethel Burning, Captain Edna Burning. 

Feature by Somerville High School students under 
direction of Mrs. Nettie M. Brown. 

"Uncle Sam" (Kenneth Watson). 

"Liberty" (Miss Esme Lucas). 

"Justice" (Miss Borothy Brown). 

Living flag, by 130 high school girls. 

St. Augustine's Cadet Field Band. 

St. Augustine's Cadets, Boston. 

St. Mary's Cardinal Cadets, Charlestown. 

FOURTH BIVISION 

MARSHAL 

Paul 0. Curtis. 

FOURTH DIVISION STAFF 

Sergeant George L. Anderson, of Somerville Lodge 917, 
B. P. 0. E. ; Cornelius Cody, of Mt. Benedict Council 75, K. of 
C. ; additional members of staff from organizations in di- 
vision. 

Somerville Lodge 917, B. P. 0. E., with Y. D. Band, 
George Cohan, Exalted Ruler, Lieutenant William E. Boy- 
den, Marshal. 

Mount Benedict Council 75, Knights of Columbus, with 
Immaculate Conception Band; James F. Sharkey, Grand 
Knight, commanding. 

Page forty-nine 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

FIFTH DIVISION 

MARSHAL 

Laurence S. Howard, P. C, Somerville Lodge 11, 
K. of P. 

CHIEF OF STAFF 

Walter B. Motz, P. C, Arcadia Lodge 113, K. of P. 

ADJUTANT 

Colonel William F. Williamson, military department, 
K. of P. 

FIFTH DIVISION STAFF: 

William F. Beaman, C. M. of E. Grand Lodge, K. of P. ; 
C. W. Lord, Chancellor Commander, Arcadia Lodge, K, of 
P.; C. K. Bigelow, Chancellor Commander, Somerville 
Lodge, K. of P. ; Dr. Herbert C. Perkins, Royal Vizier, D. 0. 
K. K; Thomas F. Plant, Somerville Aerie 1037, F. 0. E.: 
Francis E. Cassidy, Mt. Horeb Lodge, L. 0. L. ; E. G. Lav- 
ender, United Commercial Travelers ; W. H. Bellows, Winter 
Hill Nest, Order of Owls; Rev. George B. Blacknall, Old 
Powder House Lodge, G. U. 0. 0. F. 

Omar Grotto Band. 

Military department. Knights of Pythias, Brigadier- 
General Lewis J. McKenzie, commander. 

Arcadia Lodge, Knights of Pythias, Somerville Lodge, 
Knights of Pythias. 

Abou Ben Adhem Temple, D. 0. K. K., Past Chancellor, 
M. E. Henderson, commander. 

St. Joseph's Fife, Drum and Bugle Corps. 

Somerville Aerie 1037, Fraternal Order of Eagles, John 
Connell5% commander. 

Salvation Army Band. 

Mt. Horeb Lodge, L. 0. I., Thomas Doherty, com- 
mander. 

Ladies' Kiltie Band. 

Visiting Members, L. 0. I. 

Page fifty 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



Kiltie Girls' Band. 

United Commercial Travelers, E. Y. Grant, commander. 

Winter Hill Nest, Order of Owls, Charles Black, com- 
mander. 

Old Powder House Lodge, G. U. 0. 0. F., Everett E. 
West, P. S., commander. 

SIXTH DIVISION 
MARSHAL 
Henry A. Steeves. 

CHIEF OF STAFF 

Lieutenant Clarence M. Mixer. 

SIXTH DIVISION STAFF 

Lieutenant Fred J. Cliff, Major Leon Ranger. 
FOUR FLOATS 

1. Minute Men of '61 

2. Loyalty 

3. Charity 

4. Women of '61 

These floats were presented by Willard C. Kinsley Post 
139, G. A. R. ; Camp 3, Sons of Veterans ; Tent 12, Daugh- 
ters of Veterans; Woman's Relief Corps 21, and Circle 28, 
Ladies of the G. A. R., under direction of a general com- 
mittee of the above organizations. 

Somerville Post 19, American Legion Auxiliary. Float. 

George Dilboy Post 529, V. F. W. Auxiliary. Float. 

Poppy Club of Somerville. Float. 

Winter Hill and America Lodges, N. E. O. P. Float. 

Somerville Historical Society. Float, representing 
raising of first American flag. Prospect Hill. 

Somerville Fourth of July Association. Float, repre- 
senting ex-mayors of Somerville, during ten-year periods 
from 1872 to 1922. 

Page fifty-one 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



Court Ursula 187, Catholic Daughters of America. 
Float. 

General John Sullivan Branch, Friends of Irish Free- 
dom. Float. 

Ward Four Republican Club. Float. 

Anne Adams Tufts Chapter, D. A. R. Float. 

Somerville Woman's Catholic Club. Float. 

Camp 1, Patriotic Order of Americans. Float. 

Camp 2, Patriotic Order of Americans. Float. 

Pilgrim Lodge 58, Degree of Honor Protective Asso- 
ciation. Float. 

Daughters of Maine. Float. 

Lodge Fylgia 262, 0. V. Norse Viking Ship. 

Somerville Grange, P. of H. Float. 

Sons and Daughters of N. H. Club. Float. 

Somerville Temple 18, Pythian Sisters. Float. 

The Home Club of Somerville, Decorated auto contain- 
ing four of oldest members. 

Royal Arcanum Councils of Somerville. Float. 

SEVENTH DIVISION 

MARSHAL 
Eugene M. Carman. 

CHIEF OF STAFF 
Charles E. Nichols, Jr. 

SEVENTH DIVISION STAFF 
John R. Berry, 
Frederick J. White, 
Howard C. Prescott, 
Charles H. Manzer, 
William Stern, 
Charles M. Sullivan, 
Harry G. Applin. 

Page fifty-two 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



Pipe and Drum Band of Highland Dress Association. 

Somerville Board of Trade. Float. 

West Somerville Civic Association. Float. 

Union Square Business Men's Association. Float. 

Charles A. Woodbury. Decorated truck. 

New England Bakery Company. Shetland pony and 
decorated wagon display. 

White Cross Laundry. Float. 

Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. Fleet of 
trucks. 

Matthews Lumber Company. Truck and team. 

Thomas McNee. Slate house on truck. 

Pilgrim Motor Company. Three-ton tractor-trailer 
with Ford car on it ; one-ton Ford Service Truck ; one half- 
ton Ford Service Truck. 

H. G. Applin. Maxwell cars and talking machine car. 

Somerville Sales and Service Inc. Exhibit of Fords and 
Lincoln Cars. 

Somerville Board of Trade. Truck with signs. 

J. Walter Howard. Decorated Wagon. 

C. E. Hall & Sons. Trucks showing growth of business. 

Winchester Laundry. White automobiles. 

B. & S. Laundry. White wagons. 



Page fifty-thrt'C 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



LUNCHEON IN HIGH SCHOOL HALL 

As soon as the parade had passed the reviewing stand 
on College avenue, the special guests with members of the 
City Government, chief marshal and division commanders 
and their staffs, were entertained at luncheon in High School 
Hall. At the head table with Mayor Webster were Governor 
Channing H, Cox, Major General Clarence R. Edwards, 
Joseph Smith, representing Mayor James M. Curley, of 
Boston, President Robertson and Vice-President Phelps 
of the Board of Aldermen, Congressman Charles L. Under- 
bill, Secretary of the Commonwealth Frederic W. Cook, 
Colonel Harry E. Knight, of the Fifth Infantry, United 
States Army, Chief Marshal Joseph E. Wiley, Major Albert 
F. Walker, the governor's aid, and Ex-Mayors Perry, Chand- 
ler, Woods, Cliff and Eldridge. 

After luncheon Governor Cox and General Edwards 
spoke briefly, congratulating Somerville and its citizens 
on the success of the celebration. 

Before the parade had covered its route the rain began 
to fall and continuing in the afternoon and evening forced 
the postponement of the fireworks and band concerts. 

<$><$><?>♦ 
DISPLAY OF FIREWORKS 

The fireworks programme was given the following 
Thursday evening, July 6, preceded by a concert by the 
Somerville Band. There was an immense crowd in atten- 
dance and the display was worthy of the occasion. Band con- 
certs on Lincoln Park and Saxton C. Foss Park were post- 
poned until the following week, the American Legion Band 
presenting the programme on Lincoln Park on Tuesday 
evening, July 11, and the Yankee Division Band giving the 
programme on Foss Park on Wednesday evening, July 12. 

Page fifty-four 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

OBSERVANCE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

<»> <t> 

Early in the year plans were made to prepare the chil- 
dren of the public schools for the forthcoming celebration 
of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the City of Somerville by 
making them acquainted with the main facts of the history 
of the city, its advantages of location and typography, and 
the character of its present-day business and citizenship. 
While it is a part of the work of the elementary schools 
every year to teach these facts about the city, special em- 
phasis was given this year to the subject and special meth- 
ods were used to lend interest. 

Naturally these studies were brought to a head just 
before the close of the school year. On May 25, 1922, the 
Superintendent sent out the following notice to all schools 
of the city : — 

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF SOMERVILLE. 

Commemoration of this anniversary should be made 
in the schools. Inasmuch as the general celebration will 
occur after the schools are closed, whatever is done in the 
schools must be done in advance of that event. After con- 
ferring with principals about the matter, I have decided 
to request the schools to have short exercises on each of 
several days during the week of June 12. Wednesdaj^ June 
14, will be observed as Flag Day in the schools. At that 
time "Somerville's Part in the Defence of the Nation" 
would be an appropriate topic. On other daj^^s, exercises 
might be held on such topics as the following: Historical 
spots, industries, schools, Sam Walter Foss and other emi- 
nent citizens. The celebration herein referred to should 
consist in bringing together material that has been de- 
veloped in the study of Somerville during the year. 

It was later decided to devote this week, beginning 
June 12, to exercises, which were announced in the follow- 
ing bulletin, which was issued by the Superintendent on 
June 9. 

Page fifty-five 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



SOMERVILLE ANNIVERSARY WEEK 

In accordance with notice given in Bulletin 66, May 
25, 1922, during the week of June 12 exercises will be held 
in the public schools in observance of the Fiftieth Anni- 
versary of the founding of the City of Somerville. The 
Committee of Elementary School Principals has prepared 
the following outline of topics for use day by day during the 
week : — 

PROGRAM FOR THE SCHOOLS DURING THE WEEK OP 

JUNE 12 

June 12. Early History. 

June 13. Historic Spots. 

Powder House, Prospect Hill, General Greene's 
Headquarters, General Lee's Headquarters, French 
Redoubt, Paul Revere Tablets, Miller Tablet, Wool- 
rich Tablet, Old Wind Mill Tablet, Recruiting Stand 
in Union Square, Ten Hills Farm, Blessing of the Bay, 
Middlesex Canal, Old House in Somerville. 

June 14. Observance of Flag Day. 

Teach the story of the Great Union Flag raised 
on Prospect Hill January 1, 1776. Emphasize Somer- 
ville's part in defence of the flag. 

June 15. Somerville of Today. 

Its advantages due to its geography, industries, 
schools, transportation, and civic interest. 

Industries — packing houses, tube works, jewelry 
factories, soap works, box factories, rattan works, 
metal polish, lumber yards, candy shops, trunk fac- 
tories. 

June 16. Eminent Citizens of Somerville, Past and Present. 
Sam Walter Foss, George 0. Brastow, first mayor. 

NOTES 

PURPOSE 
The purpose of this observance is to impress the minds 
of all children with facts relating to the history of Somer- 
ville and to prepare them for the formal ceremonies to be 

held on July 4. 

METHOD 

Teachers and principals may employ such methods as 

will best serve this purpose for them. Principals who plan 

Page fifty-six 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



any special features should send a program of such events 
to this office for publication. 

THE UNION FLAG 
On Flag Day the story of the raising of the Union 
Flag on Prospect Hill should be brought to the attention 
of all pupils. This story should be familiar to Somerville 
school children. In order that the teachers may have the 
facts I quote here a statement furnished by H. P. Knight, 
Supervisor of District No. VII, taken from his lecture on 
the "Famous Flags of American History." 

THE GREAT UNION FLAG 

It is now a generally conceded fact that the first flag 
with thirteen alternate red and white stripes, representing 
the United Colonies, was raised on Prospect Hill, in Som- 
erville, January 1, 1776. 

It was called the "Great Union Flag" and in one strik- 
ing particular it was rightly named, for it consisted of 
thirteen stripes, red and white with the crosses of St. 
George and St. Andrew in the canton. From this it will 
be seen that it was only half American, but it expressed 
exactly the general situation at that time. The thirteen 
stripes symbolized the thirteen United Colonies but the 
Union in the canton was the "King's Colors," showing that 
the colonies acknowledged their allegiance to England. 

This was the first time in the world's history when 
thirteen red and white stripes were the foundation of any 
national emblem. 

This was the first distinctively American flag indicat- 
ing a union of the colonies. It marked the real beginning of 
our national existence and continued to be the flag of the 
Revolution until the Continental Congress adopted the 
stars and stripes. 

Mr. Knight assures me that this statement is authori- 
tative. I suggest that in the elementary schools and as far 
as possible in other schools a colored drawing of the Great 
Union Flag be placed on the blackboard. To assist in doing 
this, I will furnish each school a drawing in color of the 
flag which has been prepared for this purpose by Miss 
Andrews' pupils, 6th grade. Cutler School. 

These exercises were conducted generally throughout 
the schools in accordance with suggestions made in the 



Page fifty-seven 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



bulletin just quoted. Many special devices were used to 
give additional interest to this week. One such is shown 
in the following letter sent to the Superintendent of Schools 
by a pupil in the sixth grade of one of the elementary 
schools : — 

June 9, 1922. 
Dear Mr. Clark : 

For the past few months we have been spending much 
of our time studying places of historic interest in and 
around Somerville. 

Wednesday evening, June fourteenth, at eight o'clock, 
we are going to talk about these places, and show pictures 
of them. Will you come to hear us? 

That same day our school will be open on exhibition for 
visitors all day. 

Very truly yours, 

Charles Zee, 

Class Leader. 

Accompanying this letter were compositions illustrated 
with postal cards showing all of the historic spots of Som- 
erville and many of those in nearby cities and towns. On 
Wednesday, June 14, the class gave a lecture on these his- 
torical spots which was attended by many of the parents 
and friends of the children. The lecture was delivered by 
pupils, every child taking part, each one speaking upon 
some special topic. The lecture was illustrated by pictures 
thrown upon the screen by stereopticon. 

A company of High School girls formed one of the 
most picturesque and attractive features of the parade on 
the Fourth of July. They wore dresses of red, white, or 
blue and were grouped to represent the United States flag. 

In these and in other ways the children were taught 
the historic significance of Somerville. 



Page fifty-eight 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



SPECIAL CHURCH SERVICES 

On Sunday, July 2, 1922, special services were held in 
the churches to commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of 
the city. Dr. Albert E. Winship spoke at the union ser- 
vice Sunday evening in the Prospect Hill Congregational 
Church, Union square, on "The Part the Churches Have 
Played in the Making of Somerville," and the address at 
the union meeting in the Baptist Church, College avenue. 
West Somerville, was delivered by Rev. Frank Kingdon, 
of the United Methodist Church of Boston. Mayor Webster 
was present for a time at both services and also at the 
patriotic service conducted by Grace Baptist Church on 
Cross street. 



Page fifty-nim 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 



MAYOR THANKS CITIZENS 

<$> ♦ 

The whole-hearted enthusiasm with which the citizens 
of Somerville joined with the City Government in celebrat- 
ing the Fiftieth Anniversary of the City is a cause of gen- 
uine pleasure and satisfaction and entirely in accordance 
with the high sense of civic pride which has always been 
manifest in the affairs of the community. 

For the interest which was taken, the co-operation 
given and the hospitality shown I, on behalf of the City, 
extend my grateful appreciation and bespeak for the City 
and its people a continuation of the prosperity and happi- 
ness and high civic ideals which have thus far been so con- 
spicuous in its history. 

John M. Webster, 

Mayor of Somerville. 



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